This past weekend, 3 Metroball AAU teams competed in the More Than Basketball AAU Tip-Off in Washington DC. For a small tournament, the competition was very tough. Both of our 16u and 17u teams fought through very tough games and made it to the finals.
The 16u team took the championship with a rematch of against Baltimore Supreme. This team played us twice this weekend (once in pool play and then again in the finals). Metroball won both games by 1pt. Baltimore Supreme had no answer for Anthony Whitney (Roosevelt), who used his height and crafty skill to get to the basket and either score or draw a foul on almost every possession by using the middle of the offense. This was a very good test for our 16u team that lost in the Semi-Finals of the Big Shots tournament the previous week.
The 17u Metroball DC AAU team had some very tough games all the way through the tournament. After a hard game against the MD Trailblazers where it took a last second layup by Marvin Cyrus (to seal the win and propel Metroball to the semifinal game against the Annandale Bulldogs. Annandale surprised Metroball with a sharp shooting display of three point shots. Metroball had no answer for this, but stayed close with gritty play to close the gap to within 1 by the half. After the half, Annandale went up by as much as 17pts but Metroball never gave up. Metroball’s tough defense frustrated Annandale and eventually that frustration caused them to lose control. With only 3 minutes left and still in control of the game, Annandale started to unravel. They received a technical for unsportsmanlike conduct after a made 3pt shot. Then a foul after a Metroball steal. A flagrant foul and double technical foul after another Metroball steal, put Metroball in control. All they had to do was make all of these free throws. Annandale immediately came back down the floor and hit another 3 pointer and fouled immediately. As it turned out, Marvin Cyrus (Roosevelt) was on the free throw line on all of these possessions where he hit 12 straight free throws to put Metroball on top for good. The win put Metroball in the Finals aganst the DC Warriors who have several players that are High school teammates of Metroball players at Roosevelt High School. Today they were on opposite teams and this was another hard fought game. The game went back and forth all the way to the final few minutes when DC Warriors took the lead for good through the strong play of their big men. Metroball DC 17u took home the silver.
The Metroball DC 14u team competed well but the lack of practice showed and they couldn’t get a win. This was their first tournament, so they have plenty of time to work hard and come back strong. On a good note, Sean Riley aka “Mouse” (Don Bosco) played extremely well and because the competition was so tall, he had to play many positions on the court. Mouse was the high scorer and rebounder in all three games. The 14u’s will be ready to go when they compete in the Suburban Coalition Spring League which starts on April 20th.
